RICE: Where Are We Now? Where Can We Go?

Internationalization

The first goal was internationalization of a university that historically had focused on local and national teaching and research issues. Over the years, our international orientation and our international linkages have evolved in fundamental ways.

The most obvious example is our infusion of resources in study abroad programs. Study abroad has been a life-transforming experience for our students. Ten years ago, about 17 percent of our students participated in study abroad and internships abroad. Now 42 percent partake in these opportunities. And here is a quite striking figure: This year Rice has more students in study abroad than Harvard, which has two and one-half times more undergraduates. Much of our progress in overseas study has been facilitated by innovations and very significant investments that we have made in improving foreign language instruction.

International University Bremen (IUB) in Germany is another good example. Rice is the only U.S. university to have a European university modeled after it. IUB is a mirror image of Rice, including residential colleges, need-blind admissions, strong financial aid, and small size. IUB students come from all over the world, and are extraordinary. In October, we christened a third residential college at IUB that will house 150 students, and this coming June will see IUB graduate its first class.

Also across the Atlantic, Rice has played the central role in forging links between Texas and U.K. universities in biotechnology and nanotechnology. The Texas–U.K. project, conceived and based at Rice, unites research efforts on our campus, the Texas Medical Center, the University of Texas at Austin, and Texas A&M with efforts at Imperial College and Cambridge in England.

Closer to home but of no less international importance, we established this year new exchange programs with Monterrey Tech and formalized a series of previously unofficial exchange programs with the University of Monterrey. These complement other successful ongoing exchange programs in Chile and Brazil.

And we have the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary. The Baker Institute has vastly enhanced both the domestic and the international profile of the university through its widely respected policy research and conferences on vital topics such as the Middle East, domestic and international leadership, energy policy, and space policy. The institute also regularly brings to campus notable national and world figures—the roster of visitors has included, among many others, George H. W. Bush, Helmut Kohl, Helmut Schmidt, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Alan Greenspan, Nelson Mandela, and Colin Powell.

RICE: Collaboration Across Institutions